Naruto let his fingers drag through the feathers, allowing himself a moment of peace, tuning out noises his team made. Kimimaro stayed crouched beside him, both hidden by the leaves of the tall tree. Kakashi sat below them reading his book as Sakura and Sasuke ran up the tree. Sasuke hadn't yet reached the top. Kakashi was making Sakura turn up and down too grow her reserves. Naruto was free to do as he wished. He just stroked the small robin in his lap which had curled up on his lap, resting from flight and basking in Naruto's presence.
Finally he spotted what he was waiting for. It was in the form of a raven. The raven swooped to him immediately, landing on his outstretched arm. He took the large roll of paper from its talons and opened them. The raven hoped to his shoulder and pecked at an area on the map. Ravens were intelligent creatures and this one lived in the forest of death forcing it to be trickier, sneakier, smarter, to survive. Besides that just being in Naruto's presence long seemed to make animals smarter. Maybe his bond with them, from his mother's bloodline, allowed them to think more human.
He and Kyuubi had finally learned to the extent his mother's bloodline had passed onto him. He could command almost any animal. Animals understood him very well. Animals could be changed in his presence, becoming smarter, growing larger, or becoming better fighters. He shook the thoughts to the side and stroked the raven before dismissing it. He pulled a pen from on of the inside pockets of his coat and circled the area the raven had pointed to him.
Slowly five more ravens appeared all bringing various things as proof they had found something interesting. One brought a small throwing knife, another brought another map and one even brought an expensive looking slipper. All the ravens pointed to various places on his map also and he circled them. When the last raven was dismissed Naruto dropped to the ground of the clearing, Kimimaro following, and the robbing flying back to the tree.
The others paused to give him a look before training and reading again. Naruto just set the map down unrolled and pulled his sleeves up biting his thumb. His team paused again to watch as he swiped blood over a symbol. Ten various puffs of smoke appeared each clearing to show various animals. A vixen the size of a large dog, a smaller fox the size of a cat, a snake as large as his arm, a snake the size of him, a snake the size of Kakashi, a regular size black-backed jackal, a coyote the size of a wolf, a black bear, a wild boar, and a bobcat. It was odd to see all in once place but the forest of death held animals from all over. Naruto pulled a bloody bandage from his sleeve.
"Try and find the man this blood belongs to. Don't allow him to see you but tail him after sending at least one of you back with his position. He may be at any of these places on the map." Naruto said softly.
The animals from the Canidae family stepped forwards first sniffing the bandages and hovering over the map before barking and taking off. The others slowly came forwards doing the same. Naruto had got the bandage when he had checked Zabuza's pulse after the hunter appeared. He knew the man hadn't been dead because of his senses but he had decided to play along. As the last animals vanished into the undergrowth Naruto rolled the map up and tucked it up his sleeves. She straightened to find his team staring at him.
"Wow. I didn't know the Forest of Death had such a variety." Kakashi said.
"All of the regular animals avoid humans because they know only ninja enter and ninja are dangerous. The larger ones don't usually bother with humans either except the stupider ones. Besides that I brought a few back when I returned from my 'vacation'."
Kakashi gave an understanding nod. Sasuke stepped forwards frowning.
"Where did you get the summoning contract that allows you to summon all animals?"
"It's not a contract."
"You mean you've got all those animals to just agree to be summoned?" Sakura asked. "But that means they all have to have given you blood and allowed you to give them small traces of chakra. Summoning just single animals without a contract is also a Seal-master technique."
Kakashi glanced at Naruto tilting his head. Naruto pulled his coat down slightly to show the back of his shoulder. A tattoo for 'Seal' was there. Kakashi gave him a startled look. Naruto was one of the few seal masters alive. One of three. The others barely counted as masters also. Naruto had learned some long forgotten seal thing from Kyuubi. He was probably the most fluent with seals in hundreds of years. He prided himself with the fact it had only taken him six years to reach that level also. Shadow clones had helped a lot with that.
"Teach me how to summon animals and show me this forest you got the animals from." Sasuke said demandingly.
Naruto stared at him as if he were insane. As if he'd let the boy into his forest. He had only barely agreed to let the Chunin exams take place in it (and that was when Sarutobi had begged for a few weeks) so he wasn't just going to let Sasuke waltz in and try to take his animals. Naruto just turned on his heel and walked off allowing Kakashi to deal with the Uchiha.
.--.
Naruto circled the small area on his map and studied the rest of it. So far neither Zabuza or his apprentice were at any of Gato's bases. Seems they were smart enough not to stay with the man. Naruto was unsure of where else he could be though. He frowned in thought as he turned to Kimimaro. Kakashi was idly reading across from them, leaning against the wall. Sakura and Sasuke were asleep along with most of the house. It was quite early. Naruto motioned Kimimaro forwards and taped a few circled areas.
"Gato should have a base here and here. I want you to destroy them and kill all of Gato's allies within. If there are any prisoners or people forced to be there let them go free. Seal any of the valuables and weapons in some scrolls and gather any heads that have any bounties on them." Naruto whispered to him, soft enough Kakashi wouldn't hear.
Kimimaro nodded but then blushed just slightly.
"I do not know how to make sealing scrolls and I have none."
Naruto just gave him a reassuring nod and pulled a single small scroll from his coat. Kimimaro looked at it curiously as Naruto handed it over.
"It's my own design. It can hold as much as ten regular sealing scrolls."
The teen looked at it in appreciation then stood and bowed his head.
"Meet back here when you're finished. And take Silo with you." Naruto said motioning to the jackal at his feet.
Said jackal gave a yip and followed the bone user out the door. Kakashi also watched him leave.
"Where is he going?" He asked.
"…He'll be back." Was all Naruto said.
Then Naruto rolled his map up and slid it in his sleeve before standing. He glanced at the crutches beside Kakashi.
"How much longer till you're in top form?"
"A week minimum, two maximum."
"Zabuza had a few good wounds also. And he had chakra exhaustion in the end also so he should take the same amount if not more time."
Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. Naruto quickly summoned a raven and two large wolves. The wolves were about the size of a pony each, one a dark grey the other a deep black. The grey female was the one who had taken a liking to Kimimaro. The black one was just another of the pack. They gave him soft yips as greetings as the raven flew to Kakashi's shoulder.
"Yuri, the raven on your shoulder will be able to find me at any given time if you need to send me a message of such. The wolves shall help you guard, one staying at the house the other going to the bridge with you."
Kakashi gave a slow nod looking him over.
"And where are you going?"
Naruto just smirked and walked out the door.
.--.
Naruto gave a devious smirk as he stepped over the corpses guarding the door. Said corpses had looks of shock and terror still etched into their faces. Naruto just walked on cracking his knuckles and flexing his now blood stained claws. His coat sleeves hid most of the blood up his arm as he walked down the hall of the base. He was about ten feet into said hall when he reached stairs going down. This was one of Gato's bases that was hidden underground, the entrance hidden as an old shed. As he walked further down the stairs a light got closer and noise got louder. When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs he stepped through a door to find a group of men sitting around a table drinking and playing cards. The rest of the room was filled with crates. This base was about half a kilometre from one of Gato's ports.
Naruto stepped into the room unnoticed as the men guarding the cargo were mostly drunk. In one of the corners a woman sat shivering with a chain around her ankle, shackling her to the wall. One of Gato's slaves. Naruto despised Gato for that reason. The man had set up a slave market that ranged across the elemental countries. Few set up slave markets or tried the risky business of selling slaves because most Ninja villages weren't disgusted with them. The cruel truth, though, was that there were slave markets and people were captured in battle as slaves. Being captured in battle did have its risks, such as slavery, torture, rape, and death and many accepted this. The thing Naruto hated about Gato though was the man just took innocent people from various places and sold them as slaves.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man and quickly scanned the room. Said room was quite large, about twenty eight feet by twenty eight feet with a height of ten feet. It was filled with crates except for the center area with the table and the few doorways that most likely led to rooms the guards stayed in. Naruto looked at the woman again and was about to move towards her when a voice stopped him.
"Hey! What're you doin' here punk?!"
Seems the men at the table had noticed him. They were all rising and grabbing their weapons.
"Where're Roshi and Jin?" One other spat.
Naruto let a grin pull his lips. He gave them a fanged grin and let his one eye slant.
"Roshi and Jin? Hmm. Oh! You mean the two I killed?"
The men snarled and one lurched forwards. Naruto moved forwards before they could blink and slammed his arm in the man's chest making it burst out the other side covered in blood. The man died instantly as his friends all stared in shock, their eyes wide. Naruto gave a pout.
"Aww, I missed his heart."
The men dropped their weapons and tried to stumble backwards. Naruto ripped his arm from the corpse and licked some blood from his cheek.
"Oh well, I have five more chances to get one."
One of the men tried to bolt past him for the stairs. Naruto lashed out in a move to fast for the thugs to see and the body crumpled, the head still in Naruto's one hand. Naruto would never deny he was bloodthirsty. He loved moments like this when people gazed at him in fear and horror and blood splashed across his skin. He loved it and he would never say otherwise. Many hadn't and wouldn't see this side of him, but it was there. Naruto dropped the head and lunged at the last four men grinning all the while. Two seconds later they were all dead. Naruto shook the rivers of blood off his arm and turned to the woman. She was looking at him with fear and trying to sink into the wall. He padded over to her and she cringed back, eyes clenching shut. Naruto ripped the shackle from her leg and crouched in front of her stroking her hair, smearing streaks of blood through the brown locks.
"Look at me." He whispered softly.
She obeyed, looking at him with frightened blue eyes. Naruto leaned over and kissed her forehead leaving a bloody smear.
"Fly away." He whispered moving out of the way.
She looked at him in shock and fear, unsure of what to do. Then she ran. He waited till he could no longer hear her footsteps and turned to the first crate near by. He pried it open. Spices. Hmm. Naruto proceeded to root through quite a few of the boxes, leaving everything in them. Then he striped the men of their valuables and left the building. As he stepped back into the light he used the blood coating his hand to draw a seal on the door. Then he made ten kage bunshin. They gave him various salutes. Because of the seal they wouldn't dispel when he was more then a kilometre away like normal. They would guard the area for now. Naruto strolled off humming.
.--.
Naruto signed the papers with a flourish of his hand. When he set the pen down he looked over the rest of the documents again smirking idly. He looked up from behind the desk at the fidgeting men in front of him.
"It is signed. You have your company shares back."
The one man gave a jerky nod and motioned his guards to step forward to take the papers. Naruto smirked. He was as one of Gato's bases. The second one. It had been a goldmine. He had easily broke into the vaults and found all the documents that made Gato the legal owner of various businesses. Naruto had forged Gato's signature. The one he had just signed handed over all his ownership of a cloth company back to the owner he had cheated it from.
"Thank you Uzumaki-sama. We'll be forwarding your shares of the company to your account." The owner laughed nervously with relief as he grabbed the documents and hurried off.
At first the man had been worried about what Gato would do when he learned of the deceit but Naruto had swore to deal with it. He had enough of a reputation that the man believed him. It seems during his year and a half trip across the countries he had picked up a name from slaying so many bandits, helping out certain people, and other things like rescuing Hayate and attacking those Iwa Chunin. It wasn't enough of a reputation to get him much attention but if he wasn't wrong he was listed in Iwa's bingo book. C-class. Called Beast-Lord. He had killed those Chunin and Jonin when giving that girl the thanks a few years ago and it had gotten out. They didn't have his picture of his name but they did have a good description. Luckily few pinned his name to the Beast Lord. Though Kumo had, though they also didn't have a picture. They just knew him from his animals. He was a low B-class in their books.
Naruto gave a deep chuckle and glanced around the fancy office. This was one of Gato's main bases, but sadly the man was outside of wave at the moment. Naruto gave a brief hum and stood. He made a group of clones to strip everything of value from the place before he would light it on fire. He had returned five companies their ownership gaining some valuable shares. He had also made sure to destroy a few things that helped Gato keep reign over the smuggling ports. Seems Gato hadn't taken the time to truly take over those illegal routes, going the easy way and abducting people who really ran the routes. Naruto had let them go free and soon those 'businesses' would be out of his control. All the legal routes would be mostly obsolete when the bridge was finished anyways so he left them be. But he had tampered with the man's bank accounts.
Seems he had a few accounts but a large amount of his wealth sat in an underground vault made with the best metal and the best locks. Naruto had punched through the metal like paper. He had used a blood seal that he had invent which weakened elemental substances, and metal was an elemental substance. Then he had charged his arm with Kyuubi chakra and punched right through the door. He had emptied the vault into his own sealing scrolls and tucked them away on his person. He planned to keep some for himself, but he wasn't very cold-hearted. He would give the rest to wave. He had also drained Gato's accounts and poured all the money into the Wave Daimyo's accounts. He had heard the wave daimyo was a fair man and knew he wouldn't spend the money on just himself.
Naruto allowed a smile to take over as he stepped from the building. He made quick hand signs before breathing out. A fireball leapt from his mouth and spread to the building, splashing it with fiery red flames. He watched a moment as flames consumed the beautiful mansion. He heard the screams of the last few people left alive inside. He gave a twisted smirk. He knew when he had killed the thugs that a few had hidden inside in various places. He had let them hide. They must regret it now.
.--.
End of Chapter 11.
